Tobias Harris Saves the 76ers, Philly Defeats New York Knicks, 90-87

Tobias Harris saved his 76ers scoring a clutch three-pointer against the New York Knicks to bring Philly its 28th win of the season. The final result of this very interesting and intense East Coast clash was 90-87 for the guests.

In those moments, the Knicks had a one-point lead, 87-86, but after a timeout called by Brett Brown, the guests made a nice action, which ended with Harris drilling a dagger from downtown.

“We got bumped off,” Mike Miller NYK’s head coach explained how Harris winded up alone. “We had out coverage, but got bumped, then got into a rotation and we were just late getting there.

After that, the Knicks had their chance, but Julius Randle lost the ball. Furkan Korkmaz hit the second of his two free throws to give Philly a three-point edge, and on the other side, Marcus Morris Sr. missed what could have been a game-tying shot.

“That was a great team win, T with a huge shot in the end, way to hold it down,” said Matisse Thybulle while exiting the court of Madison Square Garden.

This was a 32nd loss of the campaign for the Knicks, who now have three defeats in a row, eight in the previous nine events. The sole win during that time came against the Miami Heat.

The funny part about this sequence is Tobias Harris totally broke the play call here. Found himself open and hit a clutch shot. pic.twitter.com/3TbKXh2E3i

— Harrison Grimm (@HarrisonEGrimm) January 19, 2020

The 76ers bounced back after two losses, by recording three straight wins against the Nets, Bulls, and now the Knicks. They were leading throughout the entire event, and although not being able to break the Knicks, they didn’t lose control of the game.

Philly had a 10-point lead throughout the second but couldn’t make a push to extend it, allowing the hosts to come back and even tie the match at one moment. The best they did in the second was to go up 67-60. During the last 12 minutes, the guests were mostly ahead, except for the moment when Marcus Morris put the Knicks into the lead, with 31.3 seconds to go. But as we already said, Tobias Harris changed all that.

The Knicks were 6 of 25 from downtown, but had just five fastbreak points throughout the entire match, while 76ers posted 20. Morris scored 20 points, Randle had 14 with 12 boards, same as Reggie Bullock.

Elfrid Payton ended the night with 10. The Knicks bench posted just 18 points.

“Our spacing broke down a little bit out there,” Miller added.

The Knicks improved under Miller but are still searching for that missing piece in their game which will make them consistent. They were playing without RJ Barrett tonight, but still even with the rookie on the floor, they can’t provide constant good results.

On the other side, we had superb Ben Simmons dictating the tempo and being responsible for all those fastbreak buckets. The Aussie posted 21 points, had 8 assists and 7 boards without a single turnover. Josh Richardson scored 18, and Furkan Korkmaz 17 off the bench.

The game-winner Harris had 15 and 8 rebounds.

Philadelphia (28-16) continues its road trip against the Atlantic Division rivals, as they visit the Brooklyn Nets on Monday, and after that head for Toronto on Wednesday to play against the Raptors. In seven days’ time, they will meet the Lakers at home.

As for the Knicks (11-32), they also play on Monday, only Miller’s team visits Cleveland and the Cavs, before coming back to MSG for a three-game homestand against the Lakers, Raptors and the Brooklyn Nets.